Today there is a great interest throughout the world in Africa. Its cinema is slowly entering the world’s film markets and the festivals. In the U.S., though not made by Africans, still “of African interest”, this week’s release of Claire Denis’s ♀White Material has garnered a strong review by Kenneth Turan in the L.A. Times.
Simultaneously poetic, dramatic and realistic, “White Material” is an altogether stunning work. Directed by Claire Denis and starring Isabelle Huppert in a bravura performance as a woman confronting armed chaos in Africa, this is filmmaking that is at once exhilarating and chilling, powerful and powerfully disturbing.
White Material: IFC has U.S. and Wild Bunch is the international sales agent.
Initiatives fostering filmmaking by Africans follow here.
Focus Features sponsors a special program, Africa First, to assist emerging filmmakers in their first short film. It awards five emerging African filmmakers $10,000.00 each towards pre-production, production, or post-production of their short film.
Sundance‘s 2010 lineup featured a new wave of filmmaking talent emerging from sub-Saharan Africa. The young filmmakers, exploring both new directions and traditional storytelling genres—both African and from other cultures—to tell modern African stories with a fresh sense of style and meaning had three films in Sundance. South African filmmaker Jenna Bass ♀ draws from ancient mythological storytelling traditions to create a kind of historical magical realism in relating a modern-day tale of warfare in Zimbabwe in her film The Tunnel. Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu ♀ creates a brightly original science-fiction vision in her film Pumzi, a story of a botanist who risks everything to nurture a plant 35 years after the “Water War.” And Senegalese filmmaker Dyana Gaye ♀ draws from the fifties- and sixties-style French musicals to breathe fresh air into Saint Louis Blues, a buoyant road-trip tale set in the clogged urban streets and dusty roads of Senegal.
The European community, however, seems to be taking the lead in bringing African films and filmmaking into the international market place. Rotterdam Film Festival’s Hubert Bals Fund, IDFA’s Jan Vrijman Fund,the Berlinale and Gotheborg all have programs to bring Africa to the world cinema. Read more about African initiatives which have taken place this year including initiatives of Rotterdam, Berlinale, Cannes and others
The Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) and Jan Vrijman Fund (JVF) and the Cinema Mondial Tour.
These two Dutch funds, which provide support to filmmakers in developing countries, have set up a joint film program, the Cinema Mondial Tour, to tour film festivals in Africa until March 2011. Working together for the first time, they have created a program of films from various African countries, as well as other regions where the HBF and JVF are active. HBF films are from Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Argentina and Malaysia while the JVF-supported documentaries come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Iran and Russia. All participating festivals make their own selection from the films chosen by the HBF and JVF. The film program consists of a total of 12 fiction films and documentaries.
Launching with a special advance screening at the beginning of June during the Ecrans Noir festival in Cameroon, the official starting signal for the tour of Africa was given on 10 July during the opening of the Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania. A day later, on 11 July, the Rwanda Film Festival began and also screened the program, followed by the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa. The Cinema Mondial Tour will run until mid-2011 and will visit film festivals in other African countries, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Benin. Hubert Bals Fund and Jan Vrijman Fund worked together with the aim of stimulating an independent film culture in developing countries. As part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), the HBF focuses specifically on the realisation of fiction films. The JVF, which is part of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), is geared to offering support to creative documentaries. The policy of both funds is twofold: firstly to provide support to filmmakers in developing countries. Secondly, the financial resources made available must be spent in a developing country and both HBF and JVF stimulate the screening of the films in their countries of origin. The aim is for the Cinema Mondial Tour to be organized in other parts of the world, such as in the Middle East and Central Asia, in the future. The Hubert Bals Fund and The Jan Vrijman Fund are both supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hivos-NCDO Culture Foundation, the DOEN Foundation, with further aid for HBF coming from Dioraphte Foundation and Dutch public broadcasting network NPS.
The Hubert Bals Fund films:
Love Conquers All by Tan Chui Mui (Malaysia, 2006)
Soul Boy by Hawa Essuman (Kenya, 2010)
Un matin bonne heure by Gahité Fofana (Guinea, 2006)
Una semana solos by Celina Murga ♀ (Argentina, 2006)
Le jardin de papa by Zeka Laplaine (DR Congo, 2003)
The Jan Vrijman Fund films:
Congo in Four Acts by Dieudo Hamadi, Divita Wa Lusala and Kiripi Katembo Siku (DR Congo, South Africa, 2010)
Glimpse by Dan Jawitz and Alberto Iannuzzi (South Africa, 2005)
Santos by Rupinder Jagdev (Kenya, 2008)
Sea Point Days by Francois Verster (South Africa, 2008)
Shungu, the Resilience of a People by Saki Mafundikwa (Zimbabwe, 2009)
Tehran has no more Pomegrenates by Massoud Bakhshi (Iran, 2006)
Tishe! by Victor Kossakovsky (Russia, 2002)
Berlinale / Durban: Africa in Motion (AiM)
For the third year, the Africa in Motion (AiM), the U.K. largest African film festival invited African filmmakers to submit short films of up to 30 minutes for the festival’s short film competition. In order to target the competition specifically towards young and emerging African film talent, filmmakers who enter a film for consideration must not have completed a feature-length film previously. Films entered must have been completed in 2007 or after. A shortlist from all the entries was selected and announced by the end of August 2010. From this shortlist, the competition winner was chosen by a high profile jury and announced at an awards ceremony at the Africa in Motion festival in October 2010. The jury consisted of local and international film specialists and established African filmmakers. All shortlisted films will be screened at the festival. In addition to the overall first prize selected by the jury, an audience choice award was selected by the audience at the screenings and announced at the end of the festival. The deadline for short film competition entries has been extended to 14 June 2010. See their website http://www.africa-in-motion.org.uk for full submission guidelines and to download the entry form, read carefully through the submission guidelines and email the festival co-directors Lizelle Bisschoff ♀ and Stefanie van de Peer ♀ with further enquires at: submissions AT africa-in-motion.org.uk
And Deeper in Africa…
FilmAfrica! has been developed from an initiative of One Fine Day Films’, Tom Tykwer and Marie Steinmann ♀. The company joined forces with the Deutsche Welle Akademie to launch a new initiative that will offer hands-on training to budding African filmmakers. FilmAfrica! which ran the production company along with U.K.-based charity Anno’s Africa in Nairobi in autumn 2008, made the film Soul Boy by Ghanaian-Kenyan debutant Hawa Essuman. The initiative now receives $1.4m (€1m) in support from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) over the next two years and will also receive support from the Goethe Institut in Nairobi. In addition, the Filmstiftung NRW has awarded $136,137 (€100,000) towards the production costs the next film, which will be shot this autumn. Guy and Siobhain “Ginger” Wilson’s Nairobi-based production house Ginger Ink, which was a co-producer of Soul Boy, will serve as the local partner for FilmAfrica!
Speaking to ScreenDaily, Tykwer said:
“This year’s project will be more structured than the pilot project of Soul Boy. There will be a series of workshops over a number of months before the actual shoot, and we will have 10-15 participants in six or seven department workshops. Out of a total of 60-100 people, we will then generate the crew which will be trained before we actually start shooting the movie. On Soul Boy, the film was the workshop. Therefore, we will know better what the particular skills and knowledge are of the individual people.”
Tykwer added some of the participants in the workshops may come from other East African countries such as Sudan or Ethiopia, but the focus will remain on Kenya. Screenwriting workshops have been already been held in preparation for the next film project, with more than 35 screenplays having been involved and developed.
“Out of these, ten major candidates are in the running, and we will then come down to three or four after the other training workshops in the summer. The final choice of screenplay should then be made with the director who is chosen from the workshops,”
Meanwhile, FilmAfrica! plans to continue the collaboration with German camera manufacturer and distributor ARRI, which provided equipment and post-production facilities to Soul Boy, and Tykwer suggested that the second film might be able to use ARRI’s new “Blue” digital camera. Soul Boy had its world premiere at the Rotterdam and Gothenberg International Film Festivals before being screened as a Generation Special presentation at the Berlinale last weekend. The film will be shown to the local Kenyan cast and crew in the Nairobi district of Kibera - where Soul Boy is set - on March 4.
Africa in Cannes
This year there was a huge increase in the number of films concerning Africa. Even the Cannes Classics is showing The African Queen.:) It seems almost every sales agent and organization was showing or offering a film about some part of Africa and its poverty, violence or redeeming factors such as art or music. This is just a sampling of some initiatives and films.
For the first time in 13 years an African feature competes for the top award at Cannes.The Screaming Man, Mahamat Saleh Haroun, a chronicle of life between a father and son evokes daily life in modern Chad, a country not at peace.
The International Emerging Film Talent Association and the Ethiopian Film Initiative joined forces to bring a group of young filmmakers from Ethiopia to Cannes for the first time.
Bavaria Film International showcased the South African film Life, Above All by Olivier Schmitz in Un Certain Regard which is currently South Africa’s submission for Academy Award snomination for Best Foreign Language.It was produced by Dreamer Joint Venture Filmproduktion/ Berlin in co-production with Senator Film Produktion/Berlin, Niama Film/Stuttgart and Wizard/Cologne.
Life, Above All
E1 has Bang Bang Club about a war photographer in South African townships now undergoing violent protests. It was recently picked up by Tribeca Distribution.
Pathé’s $6m Africa United, an ambitious U.K.-South Africa-Rwanda co-production filmed across three countries tells the story of three Rwandan children — Dudu, his sister Beatrice and his friend Fabrice — who embark on an epic journey across seven African countries to attend the opening ceremony of the football World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa. Along the way they encounter everything from hippos to heists, find new friends and face up to issues such as Aids and child prostitution.The U.K./ Rwanda/ South African co-production is the directorial debut of Debs Gardner-Paterson. It is produced by Mark Blaney and Jackie Sheppard for U.K.-based production company Footprint Films, with Rwandan producer Eric Kabera for Link Media alongside co- producer Lance Samuels for Out Of Africa Entertainment and Mark Hubbard. The film was financed by Pathe, along with BBC Films, the U.K. Film Council and the Rwanda Film Commission.
www.Cineuropa.org also writes about:
Nigeria’s Nollywood eclipsing Hollywood in Africa
May 18, 2010
As cinemas close across Africa, homegrown blockbusters are actually eclipsing Hollywood on the African market. Armed with a few thousand dollars, a digital camera, and a couple of lights, Nigerian directors have created a $236 million industry and is the world’s third largest producer of feature films. The films are now also available online at www.nollywood.com
Ugandan film producers challenged by distributors
March 24, 2010
The film industry in Uganda and the east African region is growing, but film producers are still challenged by distributors.
Zimbabwean film industry in limbo
February 4, 2010
Zimbabwean film industry in limbo 4 February, 2010 A good number of Zimbabweans who enjoy watching Nigerian films not only fell in love with the actors and actresses, but also learnt how to speak English with an accent. From Ramsey Noah to Desmond Elliot, Ifeanyi Azodo to Genevieve Njaji, Mercy Johnson to Rita Dominic, Omotola Jalade-Ekehinde to Patience Ozwokor, these are some of Nigerian actors and actresses that have captured the interest of Zimbabweans.
Call to revamp film industry in Ghana
December 30, 2009
A Ghanaian playwright, James Ebo-White has emphasized the need for Ghanaians to attach great importance to the film industry in order to develop the country’s culture. He said culture is the life blood of every economy and developing it will project the country both home and abroad. According to him culture sharpens and influences the way of life of a people.
Despite rebate, Kenyan biz still struggles
December 30, 2009
The Kenya Film Commission has tabled an ambitious slate of incentives for foreign film crews, with a proposed 25% rebate for pics that can claim at least half of their principal shooting in the country. by Christopher Vourlias But with the proposals failing to gain traction in a government bogged down by other fiscal priorities, the financial climate hasn’t improved for filmmakers this year.
South Africa 2008 Co-Productions Analysis Summary
December 13, 2009
To date, South Africa has entered into four audiovisual co-production treaties with Canada (1997), Italy (2003), Germany (2004) and the United Kingdom (2007). The purpose of this analysis is to identify the real value added by co-production projects to the local economy, asses if co-production treaty objectives are being achieved and to also identify existing trends. Co-productions analysis will be done on an annual basis to…
From Africa No. 1 (Each day, Eugenie and her guests invite you to discuss major topics of interest to Africans living in Europe: Tradition and integration, discrimination, representation of black people in French society, education of children and also fashion, beauty, black, cooking , Business Africa , major events.) But watch out, it’s in French!
http://blogs.indiewire.com/sydneylevine/archives/africa_and_the_movies/
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) to get new Managing Director
Poghisio to name new KBC boss ‘by end of this week’
By Okuttah Mark
Posted Tuesday, November 2 2010 at 19:25
The new Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) managing director may be known by this Friday, a move likely to end speculation over the position.
The names of the three candidates short-listed by the KBC board chaired by Mr Charles Muoki, were forwarded to Information minister Samuel Poghisio almost three weeks ago.
Thirty-seven candidates are said to have applied for the job, but only eight were short-listed for interviews.
The three candidates under consideration are Mr Waithaka Waihenya, the acting KBC managing director; Mr Katua Nzile, a managing editor at KTN; and Ms Ann Njagi of Royal Media.
On Tuesday, Mr Poghisio acknowledged receiving the names.
“Three names were sent to my ministry while I was away in Mexico and a decision has not been made. I will make the announcement as soon as possible, probably by the end of this week,” said Mr Poghisio.
The minister could, however, not disclose who among the three is likely to be selected.
The KBC position fell vacant after the former managing director, Mr David Waweru, was sent home over controversy surrounding the broadcast of the World Cup football matches.
The government is said to have paid Sh75 million to secure a deal on the promise that KBC would look for sponsorship to recover the money.
Naming of the chief executive is critical to the corporation as it comes at a time when KBC is looked upon by other broadcasters to steer the country in the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting.
KBC formed a subsidiary, Signet, a few months ago to offer infrastructure distribution on a commercial basis.
The company will be responsible for digital signal distribution to all broadcasters.
Private financing
Kenya has set 2012 as the deadline for migration from analogue to digital broadcasting.
The government also indicated in July that it is in the process of splitting KBC into two — private and public — as a means of sustaining the corporation.
The move is aimed at making KBC more competitive while at the same time protecting its mandate of informing the public without the headache of pursuing profits.
The split has also been informed by the quest to have a commercial wing that is free of debt and tap into private financing from banks and the capital markets.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
The Day God Walked Away-- A Kenya International Film Festival 2010 hit
The Day God Walked Away trailer onlineLe jour où Dieu est parti en voyage, or The Day God Walked Away, is a film that takes a very personal look at the Rwandan genocide, telling the story of a mother of two, a Tutsi, who is working for a Belgian family in Kigali when the genocide begins. The family leave her behind and she has to save herself amongst the slaughter.
The film features a powerful performance from the lead Ruth Nirere in what is described as rich and immersive film, and judging from the trailer it's going to be a powerful and emotional film.
The blurb for the film tells us a lot more:
Jacqueline, a Tutsi mother of two of the children, works for a Belgian family in Kigali. The family flees the machete-bearing Hutu thugs, but they can’t protect Jacqueline—they leave her to hide in the attic while looters strip the house bare.
Eventually, Jacqueline ventures out to search for her children and takes refuge in the tall grass near a pond, hiding from the voices that boast of raping and hacking up their victims. There, Jacqueline encounters a wounded man and nurses him back to health, but as he grows stronger her spirit undergoes a disturbing transformation.
Alternately terrifying and lyrical, this psychological study of the effects of a holocaust on a young woman is a powerful departure from previous cinematic treatments of heroism and white guilt coming out of the Rwandan genocide.
The film features a powerful performance from the lead Ruth Nirere in what is described as rich and immersive film, and judging from the trailer it's going to be a powerful and emotional film.
The blurb for the film tells us a lot more:
Jacqueline, a Tutsi mother of two of the children, works for a Belgian family in Kigali. The family flees the machete-bearing Hutu thugs, but they can’t protect Jacqueline—they leave her to hide in the attic while looters strip the house bare.
Eventually, Jacqueline ventures out to search for her children and takes refuge in the tall grass near a pond, hiding from the voices that boast of raping and hacking up their victims. There, Jacqueline encounters a wounded man and nurses him back to health, but as he grows stronger her spirit undergoes a disturbing transformation.
Alternately terrifying and lyrical, this psychological study of the effects of a holocaust on a young woman is a powerful departure from previous cinematic treatments of heroism and white guilt coming out of the Rwandan genocide.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
On Zanzibar International Film Festiva (ZIFF)
ZIFF an’ a whole lotta mambo jambo
Zanzibar provided an evocative setting for an international film
festival with some disappointing organisational characteristics
http://ccms.ukzn.ac.za/images/Subtext/subtext%20spring%202010.pdf
Zanzibar provided an evocative setting for an international film
festival with some disappointing organisational characteristics
http://ccms.ukzn.ac.za/images/Subtext/subtext%20spring%202010.pdf
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The 5th edition of the Kenya International Film Festival (KIFF) is scheduled to take place from 21st October-30th October 2010
 | The 5th edition of the Kenya International Film Festival (KIFF) is scheduled to take place from 21st October-30th October 2010 In 2010 KIFF will be celebrating 5years since its inception; in its 5years of operation KIFF hasexperienced remarkable growth, with each edition being better than the last. A lot of hard work, sacrifice, and teamwork has been put in by the Director, trustees, sponsors and the team and this is what has made the festival a success and at the same time contributing immensely to the continuous film development in the region. . read more Share3 |
Monday, April 5, 2010
Wanuri Kahiu takes first Kenyan Sci-Fi short to Sundance
Wanuri Kahiu takes first Kenyan Sci-Fi short to SundanceJanuary 26, 2010 by AVReporter
Filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu takes her sci-fi short Pumzi to Sundance this year. Photo By: Chris King
Kenyan Filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu takes her sci-fi short Pumzi, the first ever Kenyan Sci-Fi to Sundance this year.
Pumzi “started off as a small script about what kind of world we would have to be if we had to buy fresh air,” writer/director Wanuri Kahiu told Wired.com in a Skype interview. The movie was made with grant money from Focus Features’ Africa First short film program, the Goethe Institut and the Changamoto arts fund. Pumzi will share the screen with two other films as part of Sundance’s New African Cinema program.
This special program presents three films that reflects a new wave of African cinema. South African filmmaker Jenna Bass draws from ancient mythological storytelling traditions to create a kind of historical magical realism in relating a modern-day tale of warfare in Zimbabwe in her film The Tunnel. Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu creates a brightly original science-fiction vision in her film Pumzi, a story of a botanist who risks everything to nurture a plant 35 years after the “Water War.” And Senegalese filmmaker Dyana Gaye draws from the fifties- and sixties-style French musicals to breathe fresh air into Saint Louis Blues, a buoyant road-trip tale set in the clogged urban streets and dusty roads of Senegal.
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Related posts:
1.Kenyan Director Wanuri Kahui Wins Best Narrative Feature at the Pan African Film and Arts Festival for “From A Whisper”
2.Nominees for 6th Africa Movie Academy Awards Announced in Accra
3.Pan African Film & Arts Festival Extends its Film Submission Deadline
4.Zimbabwe gets a taste of Oscar glory and a “Kanye” moment with Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
Filed Under: Festivals, Movies
Tagged: Africa first, African cinema program, dyana gaye, jenna bass, Kenyan, Pumzi, saint louis blues, Sci-fi, Sundance film festival, the tunnel, Wanuri Kahiu
On Being A Kenyan Filmmaker
More From Wanuri Kahiu On Being A Kenyan Filmmaker, The Growth Of Cinema In Kenya & More…
Below, she speaks at last month’s
African Cinema film festival in Stockholm:
Cambridge African Film Festival
29th October – 8th November 2009
http://www.google.co.ke/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cfflive.org.uk/caff/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/WanuriPicture.jpg&imgrefurl=http://89.16.173.86/caff/guests/&h=3888&w=2592&sz=921&tbnid=QVnYbWwpXtOqzM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwanuri%2Bkahiu&hl=en&usg=__PKXbD1W80ea4js4hEEmNedMMbgM=&ei=TJi5S4ezFoOs4QajksmmDg&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=5&ct=image&ved=0CBAQ9QEwBA
Guests
We are delighted to welcome the following guests to the 8th Cambridge African Film Festival:
Mark Ashurst
Yamina Bachir
Heather Baker
Piotr Cieplak
Daouda Coulibaly
Eric Drury
Lucinda Englehart
Amor Hakkar
Wanuri Kahiu
Margaret Matheson
Cheikh Ndiaye
Mark Ashurst
Mark Ashurst is director of the Africa Research Institute and was previously based in South Africa for the Financial Times.
Yamina Bachir
Yamina Bachir’s career in cinema started as an editor, working on films by filmmakers such as Okacha Touita and Ahmed Rachedi, as well as her husband Mohamed Chouikh (LA CITADELLE and L’ARCHE DU DÉSERT). She also collaborated with Merzak Allouache on his first feature length film OMAR GATLATO and wrote the screenplay for Mohamed Lakdar Hamina’s VENT DE SABLE. RACHIDA is her first feature-length film.
Heather Baker
WAR GAMES is Heather Baker’s first and only film. It was never her ambition to be a filmmaker, but she, and co-producer Marc Allen, came across the story, she happened to be in the right place at the right time! At the time she was working as a pub manager, but she had always been interested in photography and human rights. It took around 4 years for Heather and Marc to complete the film – they did it entirely independently and on a very low budget. They produced, directed, filmed, edited, and marketed it between us while doing other full time jobs. She now works as a Book Buyer for Foyles bookshops.
Piotr Cieplak
Piotr Cieplak researches film and photography at the University of Cambridge. He also writes about film and African cinema. In his filmmaking and photographic work, he is interested in the interaction between the still and the moving image and the different ways of experiencing known and unknown places as well as questions about memory, commemoration and perspective. MEMORY PLACES was made during Piotr’s first trip to Rwanda in 2008.
Daouda Coulibaly
Daouda Coulibaly is a Malian-French director. He started his career in audiovisual editing. Inspired by a traditional tale, A HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCE/IL ÉTAIT UNE FOIS L’INDÉPENDANCE is his first short film.
Eric Drury
American Producer and Director Eric Drury has come to film-making after a varied professional past: he made an early career with the NBA (National Basketball League) in Europe, working in the marketing and partnerships field. He then jumped on the internet bandwagon, creating short videos for clients such as Cartier, dunhill, Bouygues Telecom and Häagen-Dazs.
He finally made the jump to the television, video and film-making world in 2004, working as a freelancer for several production companies in France. He worked as a producer-director for two sports television shows, “AfroGoals” and “AfroBasket”, which were broadcast throughout the African continent. He also provided English translations and voice-overs for multiple television
documentaries.
In 2007 Eric Drury produced his first hour-long television documentary about basketball in Africa – AFRICAN HOOP DREAMS – which was broadcast on France Ô in December of the same year.
He has two documentary films currently in post-production, CAMEROON CONNECTION which was shot in Cameroon and follows four African musicians as they travel through the country on a rejuvenation voyage in preparation for an upcoming album. YUNNAN, SOUTH OF THE CLOUDS is the other documentary film in post-production, and follows a diverse group of friends who hike through China’s south-West province in a post-Olympic gathering.
Lucinda Englehart
Lucinda Englehart has broad experience across the international film industry. She was Producer of MY MARLON AND BRANDO, a Turkish feature film that won numerous festival awards in 2008 including Tribeca and two FIPRESCI awards. She produced feature documentary SEA POINT DAYS whilst living in South Africa. She also worked on THE MOTHERS’ HOUSE, Francois Verster’s previous award-winning film.
Other credits include U-CARMEN EKHAYELITSHA which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2005. She coordinated a network of new township cinemas across the country to distribute this film.
Lucinda did her undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge in Social and Political Sciences and an MPhil (Political Science) at the University of Cape Town where she lectured and published a number of academic papers related to film. She is now Head of Production at Aramid, a film finance company based in London that specialises in independent films.
Amor Hakkar
We regret to announce that Amor Hakkar will not be able to join us for the Festival
Amor Hakkar was born in 1958, in the Aures mountains in Algeria. When he was six months old, his parents left their village to settle in Besançon, in France. THE YELLOW HOUSE/LA MAISON JAUNE, with its prize-winning film score, was his second feature film. Hakkar is currently preparing another feature film A FEW DAYS OF REST, set in France and filmed in French
Wanuri Kahiu
We regret to announce that Wanuri Kahiu is no longer able to attend the Festival.
In 2008, Wanuri completed her first feature film FROM A WHISPER based on the real life events surrounding the August 7, twin bombings of US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. The film recently won awards at the Africa Movie Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Picture, the Golden Dhow award for Best East African Picture at Zanzibar International Film Festival and Best Film at Kalasha, Kenya Film and TV awards. Shortly after she completed a documentary about the life of Nobel peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai entitled FOR OUR LAND (2009) for M-Net ‘Great Africans’ Series. She has recently completed a short Science Fiction Film PUMZI (2009) that was partially funded by Focus Features (part of NBC universal), Goethe Institut and Changa Moto Fund in Kenya.
Margaret Matheson
Margaret began her producing career with the feature film IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A VET in 1975 . Next came BBC’s Play For Today where her productions included ABIGAIL’S PARTY and Alan Clarke’s banned SCUM. In 1980 she became Controller Of Drama for Central Television where she was responsible for many successful series including AUF WIEDERSEHEN PET as well as producing MUCK AND BRASS and the David Leland quartet including MADE IN BRITAIN.
In 1984 she was a founding director of Zenith Productions and was responsible for SID AND NANCY, THE HIT, PERSONAL SERVICES, PRICK UP YOUR YEARS, WISH YOU WERE HERE and THE DEAD amongst others. She went on to be Chief Executive of Island World where she was responsible for Ernest Dickerson’s JUICE and Richard Loncraine’s WIDE EYED AND LEGLESS. She then produced the BBC 1 drama series, CARDIAC ARREST in 1993/4 through Island World.
Below, she speaks at last month’s
African Cinema film festival in Stockholm:
Cambridge African Film Festival
29th October – 8th November 2009
http://www.google.co.ke/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cfflive.org.uk/caff/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/WanuriPicture.jpg&imgrefurl=http://89.16.173.86/caff/guests/&h=3888&w=2592&sz=921&tbnid=QVnYbWwpXtOqzM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwanuri%2Bkahiu&hl=en&usg=__PKXbD1W80ea4js4hEEmNedMMbgM=&ei=TJi5S4ezFoOs4QajksmmDg&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=5&ct=image&ved=0CBAQ9QEwBA
Guests
We are delighted to welcome the following guests to the 8th Cambridge African Film Festival:
Mark Ashurst
Yamina Bachir
Heather Baker
Piotr Cieplak
Daouda Coulibaly
Eric Drury
Lucinda Englehart
Amor Hakkar
Wanuri Kahiu
Margaret Matheson
Cheikh Ndiaye
Mark Ashurst
Mark Ashurst is director of the Africa Research Institute and was previously based in South Africa for the Financial Times.
Yamina Bachir
Yamina Bachir’s career in cinema started as an editor, working on films by filmmakers such as Okacha Touita and Ahmed Rachedi, as well as her husband Mohamed Chouikh (LA CITADELLE and L’ARCHE DU DÉSERT). She also collaborated with Merzak Allouache on his first feature length film OMAR GATLATO and wrote the screenplay for Mohamed Lakdar Hamina’s VENT DE SABLE. RACHIDA is her first feature-length film.
Heather Baker
WAR GAMES is Heather Baker’s first and only film. It was never her ambition to be a filmmaker, but she, and co-producer Marc Allen, came across the story, she happened to be in the right place at the right time! At the time she was working as a pub manager, but she had always been interested in photography and human rights. It took around 4 years for Heather and Marc to complete the film – they did it entirely independently and on a very low budget. They produced, directed, filmed, edited, and marketed it between us while doing other full time jobs. She now works as a Book Buyer for Foyles bookshops.
Piotr Cieplak
Piotr Cieplak researches film and photography at the University of Cambridge. He also writes about film and African cinema. In his filmmaking and photographic work, he is interested in the interaction between the still and the moving image and the different ways of experiencing known and unknown places as well as questions about memory, commemoration and perspective. MEMORY PLACES was made during Piotr’s first trip to Rwanda in 2008.
Daouda Coulibaly
Daouda Coulibaly is a Malian-French director. He started his career in audiovisual editing. Inspired by a traditional tale, A HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCE/IL ÉTAIT UNE FOIS L’INDÉPENDANCE is his first short film.
Eric Drury
American Producer and Director Eric Drury has come to film-making after a varied professional past: he made an early career with the NBA (National Basketball League) in Europe, working in the marketing and partnerships field. He then jumped on the internet bandwagon, creating short videos for clients such as Cartier, dunhill, Bouygues Telecom and Häagen-Dazs.
He finally made the jump to the television, video and film-making world in 2004, working as a freelancer for several production companies in France. He worked as a producer-director for two sports television shows, “AfroGoals” and “AfroBasket”, which were broadcast throughout the African continent. He also provided English translations and voice-overs for multiple television
documentaries.
In 2007 Eric Drury produced his first hour-long television documentary about basketball in Africa – AFRICAN HOOP DREAMS – which was broadcast on France Ô in December of the same year.
He has two documentary films currently in post-production, CAMEROON CONNECTION which was shot in Cameroon and follows four African musicians as they travel through the country on a rejuvenation voyage in preparation for an upcoming album. YUNNAN, SOUTH OF THE CLOUDS is the other documentary film in post-production, and follows a diverse group of friends who hike through China’s south-West province in a post-Olympic gathering.
Lucinda Englehart
Lucinda Englehart has broad experience across the international film industry. She was Producer of MY MARLON AND BRANDO, a Turkish feature film that won numerous festival awards in 2008 including Tribeca and two FIPRESCI awards. She produced feature documentary SEA POINT DAYS whilst living in South Africa. She also worked on THE MOTHERS’ HOUSE, Francois Verster’s previous award-winning film.
Other credits include U-CARMEN EKHAYELITSHA which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2005. She coordinated a network of new township cinemas across the country to distribute this film.
Lucinda did her undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge in Social and Political Sciences and an MPhil (Political Science) at the University of Cape Town where she lectured and published a number of academic papers related to film. She is now Head of Production at Aramid, a film finance company based in London that specialises in independent films.
Amor Hakkar
We regret to announce that Amor Hakkar will not be able to join us for the Festival
Amor Hakkar was born in 1958, in the Aures mountains in Algeria. When he was six months old, his parents left their village to settle in Besançon, in France. THE YELLOW HOUSE/LA MAISON JAUNE, with its prize-winning film score, was his second feature film. Hakkar is currently preparing another feature film A FEW DAYS OF REST, set in France and filmed in French
Wanuri Kahiu
We regret to announce that Wanuri Kahiu is no longer able to attend the Festival.
In 2008, Wanuri completed her first feature film FROM A WHISPER based on the real life events surrounding the August 7, twin bombings of US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. The film recently won awards at the Africa Movie Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Picture, the Golden Dhow award for Best East African Picture at Zanzibar International Film Festival and Best Film at Kalasha, Kenya Film and TV awards. Shortly after she completed a documentary about the life of Nobel peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai entitled FOR OUR LAND (2009) for M-Net ‘Great Africans’ Series. She has recently completed a short Science Fiction Film PUMZI (2009) that was partially funded by Focus Features (part of NBC universal), Goethe Institut and Changa Moto Fund in Kenya.
Margaret Matheson
Margaret began her producing career with the feature film IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A VET in 1975 . Next came BBC’s Play For Today where her productions included ABIGAIL’S PARTY and Alan Clarke’s banned SCUM. In 1980 she became Controller Of Drama for Central Television where she was responsible for many successful series including AUF WIEDERSEHEN PET as well as producing MUCK AND BRASS and the David Leland quartet including MADE IN BRITAIN.
In 1984 she was a founding director of Zenith Productions and was responsible for SID AND NANCY, THE HIT, PERSONAL SERVICES, PRICK UP YOUR YEARS, WISH YOU WERE HERE and THE DEAD amongst others. She went on to be Chief Executive of Island World where she was responsible for Ernest Dickerson’s JUICE and Richard Loncraine’s WIDE EYED AND LEGLESS. She then produced the BBC 1 drama series, CARDIAC ARREST in 1993/4 through Island World.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
13th TIME OF THE WRITER
Durban: 9 13 March 2010
The written word will envelop Durban as writers from around South Africa and Africa arrive in Durban for a stimulating week of books, ideas and talk at the 13th Time of the Writer International Writers Festival (9-13 March). The festival, which is hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu- Natal), will feature a diverse gathering of novelists, short story writers, humour writers and political commentators. Within a precarious funding climate the Department of Arts and Culture has provided valued core support to make the production of this year's Time of the Writer possible and thereby help sustain this important platform which brings literature into the public domain. Time of the Writer will also host a tribute evening to the life, creativity and activism of the late Dennis Brutus as the culmination of a full-day colloquium organised by the Centre for Civil Society (UKZN).
The writers at the festival include Nigerian Uwem Akpan, whose brilliantly-crafted and nuanced debut collection of stories, Say Youre One of Them, won last years Commonwealth Prize for Literature Best First Book Award. Akpans collection was also selected late last year by Oprah Winfreys Book Club, a prized honour in the publishing world. Joining him in the panel discussion, Why I Write What I Write, will be the Durban-born Imraan Coovadia. Coovadia has established himself over three provoking and intelligent novels, as one of the leading contemporary South African writers. Zakes Mda, a true giant of the South African literary landscape, makes a welcome return to the festival, having just published Black Diamond, which The Weekender called: a defiantly revealing novel about contemporary South Africa…sane and insane, evocative and hilarious… The prolific Mda is the author of South African classics such as The Whale Caller, The Madonna of Excelsior, The Heart of Redness and Ways of Dying amongst others.
The award-winning playwright, journalist and acts activist Mike van Graan, author of plays such Bafana Republic amongst numerous others, will deliver the festivals Opening Night Keynote Address, entitled The State of the Arts. Durban is represented by Sally-Ann Murray, a well-established and prize-winning poet, whose debut novel Small Moving Parts was published last year. Constructed with an astonishing sense of place and detail it is a powerful book that adds a new texture to Durbans ever-expanding literary narrative. Fellow Durbanite Elana Bregin is a versatile author whose work spans youth fiction to genre-bending biography. Her latest novel Shivas Dance has been excellently received.
Thando Mgqolozana hails from the Eastern Cape and his sensitive debut novel
A Man Who is Not a Man tells of the trauma a young Xhosa man experiences after his initiation circumcision goes wrong.
William Gumede is one of South Africas most prominent public intellectuals and was the author of the best-selling Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC and more recently The Poverty of Ideas (with Leslie Dikeni). Gumede will be in conversation with Andile Mngxitama, a Black Consciousness thinker, organizer and columnist. Mngxitama co-edited Biko Lives! Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko and is the publisher of New Frank Talk, a journal of critical essays on the black condition. The latest issue of the journal will be launched at the festival. Other launches include Anton Krueger's debut novel Sunnyside Sal (Deep South) on Friday 12 March and Andy Mason and John Curtis Dont Joke! The Year in Cartoons (Jacana Media) on Saturday 13 March. Mason and Curtis, along with several other Durban cartoonists will also conduct the workshop Dont Joke! The Changing Face of South African Political Cartooning at the BAT Centres Mission Control on Saturday 13 March at 13h30. The workshop forms part of a trio organised by the fest at the BAT on the day, the other two encompassing creative writing and childrens writing.
Whats So Funny About Africa? is the title of the enticing panel that will see Sihle Khumaloand Ndumiso Ngcobo, two of South Africas top humourists in discussion. Khumalo humourous travelogues Dark Continent, My Black Arse and Heart of Africa have marked him as a witty and astute observer. Ngcobo is a writer and satirist of razor-sharp wit, whose books Some of My Best Friends Are White and Is It Coz I'm Black? contain some of the most irreverent writing currently in South African bookstores.
On Thursday March 11, the festival, in partnership with the Centre for Civil Society (UKZN) ( http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs ) , will present a Dennis Brutus Tribute Evening (17:30 21.00pm), while the CCS itself will present A Dennis Brutus Poetry and Protest Colloquium (09h30-17h00) at Howard College Theatre (UKZN). The colloquium will explore aspects of Brutus political and literary legacy in the robust, self-critical style he would have welcomed, with an emphasis on how his life might offer pointers to our own futures. The Dennis Brutus Tribute Evening at the Sneddon is divided into two sections the first (17h30 19h00) Dennis Brutus: Life, Literature, Politics And Mandates To Us All features panelists such as Ashwin Desai, Fatima Meer, Trevor Ngwane, Eunice Sahle and internationally renowned sports writer David Zirin. The second section (19h30 21h00) is a Harold Wolpe/Dennis Brutus Memorial Lecture entitled Fighting Global Apartheid by Yash Tandon, the Ugandan political activist, professor, author and public intellectual.
Apart from Uwem Akpan, Africa is further represented by Léonora Miano, a Cameroonian-French author who has written three acclaimed and prize-winning novels and Aher Arop Bol, whose debut, The Lost Boy, about the authors escape from the Sudan is an epic quest for survival, education, family, and meaning.
Readings, discussions and book launches will take place nightly at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. A broad range of day activities in the form of seminars, workshops, school visits, and a prison writing programme, are formulated to promote a culture of reading, writing and creative expression. The Hon. Ms. Lulu Xingwana, the Minister of Arts and Culture will attend the festival and handover the prizes for the Schools Writing Competition. The competition, which accepts entries in English, Zulu, and Afrikaans, has, over the years, proved to be one of the central development components of the festival.
Time of the Writers extensive programme of activities and culturally diverse line-up of writers promise to deliver a dynamic literary platform for dialogue and exchange on wide-ranging themes and offers a rare opportunity to gain insight into the many facets that inform the art of writing.
Except for Thursday, 11 March which is free, tickets are R25 for the evening sessions, R10 for students, and can be purchased through Computicket or at the door one hour before the event. Workshops and seminars are free.
Visit www.cca.ukzn.ac.za ( http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/ ) for the full programme of activities, biographies, and photos of participants or contact the University of KwaZulu-Natals Centre for Creative Arts for more information on 031 260 2506/1816 or e-mail cca@ukzn.ac.za
Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the 13th Time of the Writer festival is funded principally by the Department of Arts and Culture, with valued support from Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS), French Institute of South Africa, Centre for Civil Society (UKZN), and the City of Durban
-ends
For Media Queries Contact Sharlene Versfeld
Tel: 031-8115628
Fax: 0866827334
Email: sharlene@versfeld.co.za
The written word will envelop Durban as writers from around South Africa and Africa arrive in Durban for a stimulating week of books, ideas and talk at the 13th Time of the Writer International Writers Festival (9-13 March). The festival, which is hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu- Natal), will feature a diverse gathering of novelists, short story writers, humour writers and political commentators. Within a precarious funding climate the Department of Arts and Culture has provided valued core support to make the production of this year's Time of the Writer possible and thereby help sustain this important platform which brings literature into the public domain. Time of the Writer will also host a tribute evening to the life, creativity and activism of the late Dennis Brutus as the culmination of a full-day colloquium organised by the Centre for Civil Society (UKZN).
The writers at the festival include Nigerian Uwem Akpan, whose brilliantly-crafted and nuanced debut collection of stories, Say Youre One of Them, won last years Commonwealth Prize for Literature Best First Book Award. Akpans collection was also selected late last year by Oprah Winfreys Book Club, a prized honour in the publishing world. Joining him in the panel discussion, Why I Write What I Write, will be the Durban-born Imraan Coovadia. Coovadia has established himself over three provoking and intelligent novels, as one of the leading contemporary South African writers. Zakes Mda, a true giant of the South African literary landscape, makes a welcome return to the festival, having just published Black Diamond, which The Weekender called: a defiantly revealing novel about contemporary South Africa…sane and insane, evocative and hilarious… The prolific Mda is the author of South African classics such as The Whale Caller, The Madonna of Excelsior, The Heart of Redness and Ways of Dying amongst others.
The award-winning playwright, journalist and acts activist Mike van Graan, author of plays such Bafana Republic amongst numerous others, will deliver the festivals Opening Night Keynote Address, entitled The State of the Arts. Durban is represented by Sally-Ann Murray, a well-established and prize-winning poet, whose debut novel Small Moving Parts was published last year. Constructed with an astonishing sense of place and detail it is a powerful book that adds a new texture to Durbans ever-expanding literary narrative. Fellow Durbanite Elana Bregin is a versatile author whose work spans youth fiction to genre-bending biography. Her latest novel Shivas Dance has been excellently received.
Thando Mgqolozana hails from the Eastern Cape and his sensitive debut novel
A Man Who is Not a Man tells of the trauma a young Xhosa man experiences after his initiation circumcision goes wrong.
William Gumede is one of South Africas most prominent public intellectuals and was the author of the best-selling Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC and more recently The Poverty of Ideas (with Leslie Dikeni). Gumede will be in conversation with Andile Mngxitama, a Black Consciousness thinker, organizer and columnist. Mngxitama co-edited Biko Lives! Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko and is the publisher of New Frank Talk, a journal of critical essays on the black condition. The latest issue of the journal will be launched at the festival. Other launches include Anton Krueger's debut novel Sunnyside Sal (Deep South) on Friday 12 March and Andy Mason and John Curtis Dont Joke! The Year in Cartoons (Jacana Media) on Saturday 13 March. Mason and Curtis, along with several other Durban cartoonists will also conduct the workshop Dont Joke! The Changing Face of South African Political Cartooning at the BAT Centres Mission Control on Saturday 13 March at 13h30. The workshop forms part of a trio organised by the fest at the BAT on the day, the other two encompassing creative writing and childrens writing.
Whats So Funny About Africa? is the title of the enticing panel that will see Sihle Khumaloand Ndumiso Ngcobo, two of South Africas top humourists in discussion. Khumalo humourous travelogues Dark Continent, My Black Arse and Heart of Africa have marked him as a witty and astute observer. Ngcobo is a writer and satirist of razor-sharp wit, whose books Some of My Best Friends Are White and Is It Coz I'm Black? contain some of the most irreverent writing currently in South African bookstores.
On Thursday March 11, the festival, in partnership with the Centre for Civil Society (UKZN) ( http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs ) , will present a Dennis Brutus Tribute Evening (17:30 21.00pm), while the CCS itself will present A Dennis Brutus Poetry and Protest Colloquium (09h30-17h00) at Howard College Theatre (UKZN). The colloquium will explore aspects of Brutus political and literary legacy in the robust, self-critical style he would have welcomed, with an emphasis on how his life might offer pointers to our own futures. The Dennis Brutus Tribute Evening at the Sneddon is divided into two sections the first (17h30 19h00) Dennis Brutus: Life, Literature, Politics And Mandates To Us All features panelists such as Ashwin Desai, Fatima Meer, Trevor Ngwane, Eunice Sahle and internationally renowned sports writer David Zirin. The second section (19h30 21h00) is a Harold Wolpe/Dennis Brutus Memorial Lecture entitled Fighting Global Apartheid by Yash Tandon, the Ugandan political activist, professor, author and public intellectual.
Apart from Uwem Akpan, Africa is further represented by Léonora Miano, a Cameroonian-French author who has written three acclaimed and prize-winning novels and Aher Arop Bol, whose debut, The Lost Boy, about the authors escape from the Sudan is an epic quest for survival, education, family, and meaning.
Readings, discussions and book launches will take place nightly at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. A broad range of day activities in the form of seminars, workshops, school visits, and a prison writing programme, are formulated to promote a culture of reading, writing and creative expression. The Hon. Ms. Lulu Xingwana, the Minister of Arts and Culture will attend the festival and handover the prizes for the Schools Writing Competition. The competition, which accepts entries in English, Zulu, and Afrikaans, has, over the years, proved to be one of the central development components of the festival.
Time of the Writers extensive programme of activities and culturally diverse line-up of writers promise to deliver a dynamic literary platform for dialogue and exchange on wide-ranging themes and offers a rare opportunity to gain insight into the many facets that inform the art of writing.
Except for Thursday, 11 March which is free, tickets are R25 for the evening sessions, R10 for students, and can be purchased through Computicket or at the door one hour before the event. Workshops and seminars are free.
Visit www.cca.ukzn.ac.za ( http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/ ) for the full programme of activities, biographies, and photos of participants or contact the University of KwaZulu-Natals Centre for Creative Arts for more information on 031 260 2506/1816 or e-mail cca@ukzn.ac.za
Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the 13th Time of the Writer festival is funded principally by the Department of Arts and Culture, with valued support from Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS), French Institute of South Africa, Centre for Civil Society (UKZN), and the City of Durban
-ends
For Media Queries Contact Sharlene Versfeld
Tel: 031-8115628
Fax: 0866827334
Email: sharlene@versfeld.co.za
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
CALL FOR PROJECT SUBMISSIONS FOR INAUGURAL DURBAN FILMMART
Following an announcement earlier this year, by the Durban Film Office (DFO) and Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) to host the first international film co-production market on the African continent, organisers are calling for the submission of projects for consideration for the inaugural Durban FilmMart.
"This first African co-production market has the potential to act as a key driver in raising the visibility of film content from Africa," says Toni Monty, acting CEO of the DFO. "We envisage that it will provide African film-makers with the opportunity to pitch film projects to leading financiers and meet and network with internationally reputed directors and producers in order to form alliances for future collaborations"
Projects with an African citizen attached to one of the three creative roles of writer, director or producer are eligible to participate in the inaugural Durban FilmMart. These include fiction features, animation features and documentaries suitable for international co-production and distribution
"We expect the FilmMart to be a place for film financiers to locate fundable African projects and encourage project collaboration between African film-makers from different African countries and through this forum redress the current scarcity of film production on this continent. In fact, it is hoped that the Durban FilmMart will become a valuable feeder stage for established co-production markets across the globe," says Peter Rorvik, director of the Centre for Creative Arts/DIFF.
The Durban FilmMart promises to be a further catalyst for growth in the region by becoming one of the key events of the South African and African film industry and a focal point to interface with global parties and stimulate interest and activity in the city and the province.
The Durban FilmMart will be a joint project of the DFO and the DIFF and will take place in July during the 31st Durban International Film Festival (22 July - 1 August). For more information on the Durban FilmMart and project submissions visit the website on www.durbanfilmoffice.com or contact Musonda Chimba.
Musonda Chimba
Durban Film Office : +27 31 3114248
E-mail: chimbam@durban.gov.za
FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES
DFO - Joanne Hayes, Tumbleweed Communications
Cell: + 27 83 627 7249 E-mail: weeds@iafrica.com
DIFF - Sharlene Versfeld, Sharlene Versfeld & Associates
Cell : + 27 83 326 3235 E-mail : Sharlene@Versfeld.co.za
NOTES
The Durban Film Office (DFO) is the film-industry development arm of the Ethekwini Municipality, mandated to position Durban as a world-class film production destination and facilitator for the development of the local film industry. The DFO drives activity and development in the sector in order to boost tourism, job creation and the development of core skills and SMME's in the region. The organization is also actively seeking and creating opportunities for setting the benchmark as the leading authority in the field in South Africa.
The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) is a flagship project of the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal). The CCA facilitates creative platforms and economic opportunities for artists and related industries, intercultural exchange and network development, training, audience development and strategic Pan-African and international cooperation in the cultural sectors. The CCA also produces three other major annual festivals - Time of the Writer, Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience and Poetry Africa. www.cca.ukzn.ac.za
©Copyright Durban Film Office. 2009 All Rights Reserved.
Designed & Hosted by Khutaza Designs
"This first African co-production market has the potential to act as a key driver in raising the visibility of film content from Africa," says Toni Monty, acting CEO of the DFO. "We envisage that it will provide African film-makers with the opportunity to pitch film projects to leading financiers and meet and network with internationally reputed directors and producers in order to form alliances for future collaborations"
Projects with an African citizen attached to one of the three creative roles of writer, director or producer are eligible to participate in the inaugural Durban FilmMart. These include fiction features, animation features and documentaries suitable for international co-production and distribution
"We expect the FilmMart to be a place for film financiers to locate fundable African projects and encourage project collaboration between African film-makers from different African countries and through this forum redress the current scarcity of film production on this continent. In fact, it is hoped that the Durban FilmMart will become a valuable feeder stage for established co-production markets across the globe," says Peter Rorvik, director of the Centre for Creative Arts/DIFF.
The Durban FilmMart promises to be a further catalyst for growth in the region by becoming one of the key events of the South African and African film industry and a focal point to interface with global parties and stimulate interest and activity in the city and the province.
The Durban FilmMart will be a joint project of the DFO and the DIFF and will take place in July during the 31st Durban International Film Festival (22 July - 1 August). For more information on the Durban FilmMart and project submissions visit the website on www.durbanfilmoffice.com or contact Musonda Chimba.
Musonda Chimba
Durban Film Office : +27 31 3114248
E-mail: chimbam@durban.gov.za
FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES
DFO - Joanne Hayes, Tumbleweed Communications
Cell: + 27 83 627 7249 E-mail: weeds@iafrica.com
DIFF - Sharlene Versfeld, Sharlene Versfeld & Associates
Cell : + 27 83 326 3235 E-mail : Sharlene@Versfeld.co.za
NOTES
The Durban Film Office (DFO) is the film-industry development arm of the Ethekwini Municipality, mandated to position Durban as a world-class film production destination and facilitator for the development of the local film industry. The DFO drives activity and development in the sector in order to boost tourism, job creation and the development of core skills and SMME's in the region. The organization is also actively seeking and creating opportunities for setting the benchmark as the leading authority in the field in South Africa.
The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) is a flagship project of the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal). The CCA facilitates creative platforms and economic opportunities for artists and related industries, intercultural exchange and network development, training, audience development and strategic Pan-African and international cooperation in the cultural sectors. The CCA also produces three other major annual festivals - Time of the Writer, Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience and Poetry Africa. www.cca.ukzn.ac.za
©Copyright Durban Film Office. 2009 All Rights Reserved.
Designed & Hosted by Khutaza Designs
Thursday, January 14, 2010
3rd TALENT CAMPUS DURBAN 23 - 27 July 2010 at the 31st Durban International Film Festival (22 July - 2 August 2010)
Talent Campus Durban invites filmmakers from Africa to apply to participate in these workshops and seminars, which take place in Durban, South Africa, over five days. In addition to specific activities offered by the Campus, the selected talents will have the opportunity to attend films and events at the 31st Durban International Film Festival.
Deadline for application: 15 March 2010
Full Rules and Regulations can be downloaded from: www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/talentdiff2010.htm
For further details:
Phone: +27 (0)31 260 2506/1367
Fax: +27 (0)31 260 3074
Email: talent at ukzn.ac.za or talent.durban at gmail.com
Talent Campus Durban is produced as a cooperation between the Durban International Film Festival and the Berlinale Talent Campus, and Berlin International Film Festival and is supported by the German Embassy in South Africa, the Goethe-Institut South Africa and the Department of Economic Development - KwaZulu-Natal.
For email contact please use the following:
Media Queries: Versfeld and Associates
Tel: 031-8115628 Fax: 0866827334 Email: sharlene@versfeld.co.za
Festival queries: Durban International Film Festival
Tel: 031 260 2506 Fax: 031 260 3074 Email: diff@ukzn.ac.za
Talent Campus Durban queries:
Tel: 031 260 1650 or 2506 Fax: 031 260 3074 Email: Email: talent@ukzn.ac.za or talent.durban@gmail.com
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Society & Culture Magazine
Announcing
the creation of Society & Culture Magazine.
For thought-provoking discussion, exhibition and critique of all things cultural in today's African society.
You are invited to submit stories, articles and photographs with a cultural perspective on life in East Africa and the continent at large.
Send your cultural works and contact details to: society.magazine@yahoo.com
We shall reward all works that we publish.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
The FilmMaker
Press Release from the Kenya Film and TV Professional Association (K.F.T.P.A)
The film industry and Kenya is in crisis. Last year, Film production in Kenya injected approximately 2 Billion Kenya shillings into the economy. Everyone benefited - from air charter companies, transport companies, Hotels, to the small scale farmer selling eggs to the caterers that feed the crews. Our industry is that diverse. Film production generates revenue in every sector of the Kenyan economy in some form or another. A vibrant international industry also inspires and nurtures local talent. Kenyan filmmakers are an emerging force and are gaining recognition around the world. International Investors are looking to Kenya as a talent pool and are or were funding Kenyan filmmakers to realise their voice and vision. Kenya is showcased throughout the world through cinema, television and press. The film industry has positively marketed Kenya for decades. Over 20 years ago, ‘Out of Africa’ sold Kenya as the world’s Safari destination and tourists were still coming to Kenya until January this year…Kenya could not have paid for better advertising! Kenya as a filming location attracts investment, development, recognition, employment, stability. All things we appear to have forgotten...
(More) http://www.filmingkenya.com/issue1/mdword.html
The film industry and Kenya is in crisis. Last year, Film production in Kenya injected approximately 2 Billion Kenya shillings into the economy. Everyone benefited - from air charter companies, transport companies, Hotels, to the small scale farmer selling eggs to the caterers that feed the crews. Our industry is that diverse. Film production generates revenue in every sector of the Kenyan economy in some form or another. A vibrant international industry also inspires and nurtures local talent. Kenyan filmmakers are an emerging force and are gaining recognition around the world. International Investors are looking to Kenya as a talent pool and are or were funding Kenyan filmmakers to realise their voice and vision. Kenya is showcased throughout the world through cinema, television and press. The film industry has positively marketed Kenya for decades. Over 20 years ago, ‘Out of Africa’ sold Kenya as the world’s Safari destination and tourists were still coming to Kenya until January this year…Kenya could not have paid for better advertising! Kenya as a filming location attracts investment, development, recognition, employment, stability. All things we appear to have forgotten...
(More) http://www.filmingkenya.com/issue1/mdword.html
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